


What you know

by Gayneral



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Bi Randall Ascott, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, What could've been, What-If, and hinted lesbian Angela, featuring Gay Henry Ledore, insight on a possible past they could've had if Randall wouldn't have disappeared, or something of the likes, writing tags and summary is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 17:50:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12776259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gayneral/pseuds/Gayneral
Summary: At age 17 Randall knew one thing for sure, he'd one day become a famous archaeologist.Following right up on the list of things he knew was that he liked Angela.But he didn't know about the future.Perhaps that's what makes you do things you wouldn't have otherwise.It can't be said just exactly how it would've gone if Randall would've knownBut it could've been a little like this:





	What you know

**Author's Note:**

> It's been almost half a year since I've last written something proper.  
> I've just finished The Miracle Mask yesterday lmao  
> (Late af I know but I could only play in the first place because I got lend a 3DS. I'm that person that still only owns a DS)
> 
> I wrote this in the middle of the night when I was bubbling over with feels over the game, especially to Henry and Randall  
> Boy I could talk hours about how much Henry loves Randall but this is not the space for it
> 
> Anyway, long story short, I've wrote a little something, and I hope you enjoy it

They were 17 Years old when Randall vanished, vanished not died, Henry corrected Angela every time and she couldn't bring it over her heart to tell him that perhaps acceptance was the first step to moving on.  
A part of her hoped as well, of course, and she'd wait with Henry until the end of time if necessary but all that talk about Randall as if he'd just taken a vacation and would return in a few months…  
The more time passed the more hollow it made her feel.

Time stopped ticking the usual way when they were 17.  
Randall’s disappearance had been an unpredictable incident, something none of them had pictured in their plans.

When you're 17 you know things, about yourself, about the world, about how you want your life to go.  
But there are things purposely left unresolved, little things that you believe aren't meant to be done or said just yet.  
You're 17 and you think there's still time, might it be a few weeks, months or years.  
People say sometimes time solves things and you trust in that. 

And then it's too late  
And then time resolves and all those things?  
They are left forgotten, or even worse, they are still there, but you aren't anymore 

 

At age 17 Randall knew one thing for sure, he'd one day become a famous archaeologist, just like his idol, Desmond Sycamore.  
And with the Mask, that future was almost close enough to touch.  
He was sure he'd convince Hershel eventually to join him on the search because even if his friend claimed to be uninterested in Riddles and Archaeology, Randall felt it in his bones that a part of Hersh enjoyed them after all.

That'd be one hell of an adventure!

Following right up on the list of things he knew was that he liked Angela.  
He liked Henry too, and Hershel of course and even Alphonse, even though he was being a little bit of an asshole lately whenever Angela was involved.  
Randall wasn't sure why.

So Randall knew he liked all of his friends quite a lot.  
But he liked Angela a special sort of way, just as his parents had always told him, because she was beautiful and smart, exactly how the girl should be to fall in love with.  
He'd told his mother about his friends constantly, smile so bright it hurt his cheeks, with his chest fluttering and she's chuckled.  
It was the sort of chuckle that made Randall feel like she knew everything in the world but wouldn't mock her son for being a dumb child.

Upon asking she'd told him, twinkle in her eyes that made her look years younger, that he spoke a lot about Angela, and wanted to know if he liked her, eyebrows raising as if there was a deep meaning in every of her words.  
“Of course I like her!” he'd responded and at dinner his father had told him that to ask a classy lady like Angela out, a man would have to have something to show for himself.

From that evening on Randall knew that he'd ask Angela on a date once he'd return from his adventure, and one day would ask her to marry him, once he'd become a proper archaeologist, and had shown his father that he was capable of something.  
It's one of those things he never doubted that there would be time for later.  
Maybe if he'd known what would happen in the 18 Years from then he would've rushed over to Angela's house, knocked on the door and would've dragged her off to the hill just then and there.

But he didn't know about the future and so he never went on that date.  
Perhaps never truly knowing what will come is the charm of it all, the unexpected right across every corner, little surprises that you just couldn't predict.  
Perhaps that's what makes you do things you wouldn't have otherwise.

We'll never know just exactly how it would've gone if Randall would've known  
But it could've been a little like this:

He still goes on that adventure with Hershel, there's no way he'd pass upon a chance like this, but this time he has the Mask securely in his backpack and when he falls, he can take both hands reached down to him.

They solve the last riddle together, adrenaline rushing through their veins and there's gold and silver and thousand shiny things behind it and they laugh.

This time Hershel returns with a smile and Randall dashing forward as soon as he sees Angela and Henry waiting.

He is grounded for a week for going off on such a dangerous travel but he takes it with a smile and hugs his parents for it.  
They forget their anger for a second over confusion but they don't know that in another life, Randall never sees his father again.

They recover some of the gold but it's not of too much interest for Randall.  
Things don't stop with the discovery of a little bit of treasure for the boy thriving on riddles.  
Hershel says he needs a bit of a rest from adventures after almost seeing his friend die but one week later they sit over maps together, because in the end Randall is right and Hershel a liar.  
He does like Riddles.

He takes Angela out on a date  
They are 17 and they do it the way 17 year olds do it, awkwardly, tiptoeing around things, but Randall doesn't want to wait up anymore.  
He kisses her too fast, because deep down he's a little afraid he won't get to do it otherwise.  
He says “Be my girlfriend” too soon, talks a little too less about things because actions are so much more to him.

Life sets itself back into motion.  
There's no one stopping their life and settling it around the ghost of a boy that fell into nothingness.  
They grow up how they should have.

In a steady flow, like a river, changing slowly without anyone noticing, until it's turned from a tiny flow of water into a wild rush.  
Natural, not formed by tragedy.

Hershel and Randall study Archeology and test each other with riddles so often that there's a ban of them during study hours.  
They graduate best in their year and while Hershel moves onto teaching at the University, Randall takes a more practical approach.  
He's only halfway done with uncovering all the secrets of the Aslanti after all and field work is soooo much more interesting.

He does become famous, but that's a different story.

Angela agrees to date him, because she's just 17 too and she's always liked Randall for his warmth and energy and the way he was able to make her laugh.  
She thinks it's worth a try and it works out wonderfully for a few years.

They do it like that, dates whenever they can and she sits with Randall when he's bend over some notes on Archeology, listens when he rambles on and on about it and she's happy.  
But time moves without noticing and carries change on its wings that sweep up Angela and makes her notice that while she likes her life like this, there could be so much more.

She's more than just a wife and it makes her unbearably sad when she notices it but she's more than Randall’s future wife.  
There's more to her than a boy she's fallen for when she was 15.

Angela, clever and with her great sense of justice, trains to become a detective, even if her parents frown upon that choice.  
Because Randall says there's no dream that's uncatchable and where he's right, he's right.  
They stay the best of friends because they always have been and they can't imagine a life without another.

Henry, loyal Henry, that is so selfless that he doesn't have plans for the future besides taking care of everything in the Ascot household, stays working for them.  
Lord Ascot is angry with him, for covering for Randall but after he's apologized and after Lady Ascot had commented that poor Henry was probably just pulled into this by their son, he gets away without punishment.

Deep down he knows that he would do it again, and again, and that if he could've, we would've joined Randall on that excursion, because he'd rather have all the punishment in the world than lose his best friend.  
Amongst all the people it's maybe Henry that helps Randall the most.  
He brings Randall food because he knows how easily he forgets to eat when he's diving into a mystery to solve.  
He reads up on Archaeology so he can help Randall, so he knows what exactly the other boy is talking about.

When Randall has troubles with Angela, Henry listens and gives advice on how to make things up because there's not a part in him that's vicious and jealous.  
When he's 17 and constantly around Angela and Randall, people think he has a crush on her and he, innocent and without other options, thinks that too.  
It's time that allows him to notice that it's not Angela he's harbored interest in and time allows him, on a rainy day, a year after Angela and Randall have broken up, to finally tell his best friend.

He's kept it a secret for years, in respect of their friendship, to be sensible after the break up.  
And maybe he's a little bit selfish because when Randall had left the house after he's become an Archaeologist, Henry had joined him.  
Because even in a life where he doesn't build him a city, his life still resolves around the bright and beautiful light that is Randall Ascot.

Randall is quiet for a bit after he's told that his best friend loves him and at first he's all about telling Henry that this doesn't change anything between them.  
Because he loves Henry too, in a friend way, he always has.

But Randall has to discover that sometimes time doesn't change people but it changes the way you see them because one evening he sits with Henry and they talk and he ends up asking himself how he's never seen Henry like this.  
And he knows things will never be the same.

Suddenly being around him makes his heart flutter the same way it had years ago when he'd fallen for Angela.  
Randall finds courage, because even years later he remembers what delaying things can mean.  
And Henry finds him and they smile so wide that they can't stop for hours  
And Randall is truly happy.

There'll be a million kisses and he's the famous Professor Ascot, that solves the most difficult mysteries with his friend Professor Layton, and Henry becomes Ascot-Ledore and Angela holds an absolutely moving speech at their wedding that makes Randall cry.

Oh and Alphonse? He gets his hotel and his wife but it's not Angela.  
Angela gets her very own wife, a police woman that she doesn't have to wait for because she asks Angela out after a dangerous mission and this time it isn't too late.

But in the end this future resolved into thin air, nothing but a little dream of a possibility, dreamt by a boy fallen into a river that changed everything.  
A short little flicker of a flame before it died and took Randall’s memories with it.  
In the end there's no foretelling and everyone was left with a million things they would've done and said if only there'd been more time.

When Randall remembered, he knew only one thing, all his plans of becoming an Archaeologist and asking Angela on a date erased.  
All the things he thought he knew when he was 17, they'd been nothing but hope mocking him by pretending to be something more.  
And the only thing he truly knew was that he'd take revenge.  
That Henry had taken everything from him, all possible future, all things he'd once known, and that Henry would pay for it.

It's funny, he'll think one day, how quick he is to discharge something he once thought to know with certainty.  
Just how often he's wrong in life  
At 17, when he thinks he'll be famous one day, an Archeologist and Husband of a girl he crushed on when he was a teen  
At 33, when a letter tells him that his best friend has taken everything from him and he believes it right off the bat.  
When he believes someone else's tales of whom he is.  
At 35, when he takes on a disguise and bring terror to innocent people because he thinks revenge is the way to get back what he lost  
At 35 again, when he believes there's no way Henry, Angela, Hershel and the City can forgive him what he's done.

And he's proven wrong  
At 35 he noticed, realizing that he's wrong with what he thought he'd known can be the best possible feeling.

At Age 35 time sets back into motion.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading!  
> Big shout out to everyone that gives Kudos or Bookmarks, it means a lot  
> @Ppl that might comment, you own a part of my heart now


End file.
